The present invention relates to a vehicle cabin construction, and particularly to a passenger vehicle construction which efficiently exploits the unused space within the vehicle such as to enable the cabin to accommodate additional passenger seats. The invention is especially useful for aircraft, and is therefore described below with respect to such application.
The invention of the present application is particularly useful with respect to the constructions described in the above-identified patent application Ser. Nos. 08/059,716, (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,143), and 07/812,466, (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,515). Those patent applications describe several aircraft cabin constructions for increasing the use of floor space in the passenger cabin of the aircraft in order to increase the seating capacity and thereby to increase operating revenue. The descriptions of the above two patent applications are herein incorporated by reference.
Patent application Ser. No. 08/059,716 and 07/812,466 describe aircraft cabin constructions comprising an outer fuselage wall enclosing a passenger compartment including a ceiling spaced below the outer fuselage wall, a deck below the ceiling, and a plurality of passenger seats fixed to the deck under the ceiling; characterized in that the cabin construction further includes: a storage compartment in the space between the outer fuselage wall and the ceiling for storing article holders; and an elevator having a platform and a drive for loading the article holders from the storage compartment to the deck, and for raising the article holders from the deck to the storage compartment.
In one described embodiment in patent application Ser. No. 08/059,716, the storage compartment occupies the space extending along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft cabin between the outer fuselage wall and the ceiling. The present application is particularly directed to the latter embodiment.